Scrutiny and Survey

Scrutiny

Scrutiny is a close examination of something or someone. Scrutinize is the verb form. It is the action involved when one is under scrutiny or under close scrutiny.
During a general election, each political party scrutinises the words and actions of the candidates from the opposing parties. They are looking for mistakes to use in their campaigns.
Few of us can withstand a scrutiny of our personal lives. Most of us have done things that we regret, and we would not want those actions made public.
Self-scrutiny is the act of examining one's own thoughts or actions. Inscrutable is an adjective that means not easily understood.
After much self-scrutiny, my sister decided that she would drop out of college and pursue her dream of becoming an actress. She is now living in New York City and taking acting lessons.
At the end of the trial, the defense barrister couldn't tell how the jury had voted. Their inscrutable facial expressions revealed nothing.

Survey

To survey is to examine and look over in order to determine the condition of something. A survey is a questionnaire that creates a sampling of opinions taken to indicate what a complete collection of opinions might reveal.
The general surveyed the troops to determine their fitness to go into battle after they'd spent a week without food.
The survey results were useless because too few people responded. No real opinions could be identified.
A surveyor is one who measures the boundaries of a piece of land, usually to determine the legal line of separation between two or more properties.
Liz was buying a house and needed to take out a mortgage. The bank insisted she engage a surveyor to carry out a full structural survey before they would agree to the loan.
My neighbour claimed that the lilacs between our houses belonged to her, so I hired a surveyor to identify the boundary. The lilacs are mine!